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getting a baby to self sooth and sleep all night??

i have a 6 month old daughter,she is breastfed and her crib is right next to my bed.there have been a few times that she has gone to sleep before midnight and not woken up till 6 am.i love those days.but there are days,like here recently,no matter what she is up till midnight,wakes up at 3 and 6 am to feed.and she constantly falls asleep on the boob.i have tried feeding her right before bed,breast feeding and solids.there for a few days that worked feeding her on the boob and then giving her solids then letting her have a little bit more of the boob.those few days i did that she was in bed by 10 and didnt wake up till 6am.i am really needing some advice my sleep is lacking and so is my marriage and love life because of this.any suggestions??oh and i try to put her in her bed to cry it out,and it does not work.i set a timer for 5 mins,put her in her bed,tell her i love her,its night night time and walk out,i do this for 20 mins

Maybe she's hitting a growth spurt and just needs the added nutrients right now (and so your supply increases). If this is the case, then she actually NEEDS to keep waking up. If it lasts and lasts, however, I would try using a pacifier and patting her back for a few minutes when she wakes up. Keep the paci near her in the crib also, because if she's like my dd eventually she'll learn to pick it up herself when she wakes up. IF that doesn't even help and she starts getting even more upset because of the lack of milk (have dh try it too though, just in case she smells the milk on you and wants it just because) then I would say she really is hungry and it's just something you may have to deal with off and on. My daughter slept through the night early, but on occasion she'd go a few nights here and there when she'd wake up for food. Annoying sometimes, but part of being a mommy! Good luck!

They don't recomend CIO until 6 mos but I waited until dd was a lot older (around 14 mos)!! We didn't breastfeed and we had sex around our baby or during her naps. Otherwise, I napped when dd napped.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 12:01 PM on Apr. 23, 2010

i also have a 4 year old with my 6 month old.and he does not nap and my husband is working from 6am till 330.so it doesnt really leave us time for "us"

Answer by
Anonymous
at 12:03 PM on Apr. 23, 2010

what does CIO mean??

Answer by
Anonymous
at 12:03 PM on Apr. 23, 2010

CIO=Cry it out. Babies need to eat at night, there's not much you can do about that. My 5 month old daughter has been going to sleep between 8-9 since she was 4 weeks. We darken the room at 7 & keep things mostly quiet, so she knows it's bedtime. I nurse her to sleep, then put her to bed. She still wakes up a couple times to nurse, but that's just something I deal with. SO & I usually get it on or just hang out right after she's asleep. It's possible, you just hafta work around babies schedule..

we try to get her to sleep around 9 or 10 with brother but as soon as she falls asleep in my arms from feeding i try putting her in her bed and as soon as she feels a different surface she wakes up and screams her head off. dh and i we take showers at night so we don't have to battle both kids.cause we wait until our son is asleep to take our showers and we try almost every night to take a shower together so we have a little bit of intimate time together even if it is just seeing one another naked or bathing one another.but most nights when we do that our daughter is on the bathroom floor crawling around on her mat or in her bed screaming or she is with one of us while the other showers real quick.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 12:20 PM on Apr. 23, 2010

STTN is developmental... many, many 6 month olds are just not capable of it. Do you co-sleep? Try it... both my boys woke frequently at night and co-sleeping was the only way I got any sleep.

She will STTN when she is ready to, what you do really won't effect it. Do what you have to in order to get enough rest for yourself in the meantime.